Business can be a good thing. At least if those businesses are part of 1% For The Planet. The idea is simple: 1% of sales are donated to an extensive network of environmental organizations worldwide. If you believe in the environment, pass along or post this video to spread the word. Because even in a bad economy, we have to take care of the environment. Therefore, making educated consumer choices means supporting companies that believe in the world we live in and are devoted to protecting it. That's a healthy choice.

[Via The Cleanest Line]

As reported by the San Francisco Bay Guardian, journalists who were given a sneak peak of the tour were informed by Carol Tang, director of visitor interpretive programs, that the economy and entire way of life in California "will all be affected by climate change," adding, "the T. rex reminds us that mass extinctions have happened and we're in a mass extinction right now."

But alas, not is all well in the world of popular science education. In the build-up to the event, the Academy has been trumpeting the architectural and scientific achievements of the new building and feature exhibits. For environmentalists, however, it's a program underwritten by a patron with questionable intentions.  It seems that "when visitors show up for the opening weekend's festivities, they'll be told they have Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to thank for the museum's opening, which includes free admission on the first day." According to the media release posted on the utility's website, “[e]mpowering Californians with the tools and information to reduce their impact on climate change is critical to protecting California’s natural heritage. We’re honored by the opportunity to support the California Academy of Sciences as they take on the important mission of inspiring future leaders to create a more sustainable California.” Sounds like an act of nobility and corporate virtue. The news item advises that PG&E invested $1.5 million for the rights to co-sponsor, benefiting in return with post plenty of corporate signage, prominent mention in academy press releases, subtle plugs to journalists by museum staffers, and a spot on the five-person panel of academy leaders that addressed the assembled scribes at the pre-opening media tour.

These kinds of public-private partnerships in the arts are not new, as the cultural historian Neil Harris argues in his 1990 book Cultural Excursions: Marketing Appetites and Cultural Tastes in Modern America. Harris claims "the search for an enlightened American art patronage is as old as the republic itself," and shows several instances where art and corporate power intersect. He also has a fascinating chapter on the link between museums and issue advocacy, which would no doubt fit in relation to the global warming education initiative involved here. The point is that big business has long lined up behind the arts and for various reasons -- some of them noble and benevolent, and others quite deliberately self-serving. For the activist group Green Guerillas Against Greenwashing, PG&E falls squarely into the latter category. Noting the utility company's ongoing efforts to block current legislation (The Clean Energy Act) and its legacy of lobbying against high environmental standards for utilities companies, the group finds the organization's sudden support for public education about global warming a little too hot to handle. For PG&E and proponents of corporate social responsibility, the utility company's sponsorship of this initiative demonstrates not an attempt to deceive or manipulate, but to link science and climate change education and to show that there are times when industry can mobilize its significant capital advantages to demonstrate environmental leadership.

Need a break from trying to decide whether or not the boy who cried wolf is crying for real this time? From trying to decide whether to laugh or cry at the sheer embarrassment that is the American federal government, primarily the White House but the other two hallowed halls aren't so sacrosanct themselves?

Our leaders can learn a thing or two from Dr. Pan Wenshi, one man who is singlehandedly saving a species from extinction, a village from the poverty that had driven them to cannibalize their natural resources, and humanity's tenuous faith in its own perfectibility which Mencius propounded.

Read on and enjoy the warm fuzzies! You'll need it to get back to watching the tragicomedy that is becoming an epic by the day.

A breakthrough in protecting the species came in 1997 when he helped local villagers build a pipeline to secure clean drinking water. Shortly thereafter, a farmer from the village freed a trapped langur and brought it to Dr. Pan.

“When you help the villagers, they would like to help you back,” he said.

As self-appointed local advocate, Dr. Pan raised money for a new school in another village, oversaw the construction of health clinics in two neighboring towns and organized physicals for women throughout the area.

“Now, when outsiders try to trap langurs,” Dr. Pan said, “the locals stop them from coming in.”

- It Takes Just One Village to Save a Species:
By helping a Chinese village out of poverty, Pan Wenshi protects the endangered langur
- The New York Times

Want to get to know your watershed without having a water park in your basement? Visit the EPA's "Surf Your Watershed" web site. From here you can put your location info and you're presented with:

• What watershed(s) you're living in.
• Congressional Districts contained in the watershed.
• Citizen based groups working in the watershed.
• Environmental websites pertaining to the watershed.
• Assessments and USGS information of the watershed.
  
• Other upstream and downstream watersheds
  

Here you go Chicago. Meet your watershed.

Six Greenpeace climate change activists have been cleared of causing £30,000 of criminal damage at a coal-fired power station in a verdict that is expected to embarrass the government and lead to more direct action protests against energy companies.

I feel like dancing.  Woot.

(For the full, funnier 10 minute version, go to Carrotmob Makes It Rain from carrotmob on Vimeo.)

Environmental activism via consumerism: Carrotmob mobilizes the good people of San Francisco to shop en masse at a convenience store that agrees to spend 22% of the generated revenue on energy efficient retrofits to the store.

Wildly successful would be an understatement.

CBS5 Eye Witness News's segment on the event.
(Note the lazy journalism.
Nearly all of the footage featured is from Carrotmob's youtube video.)

I raised my eyebrow at Carrotmob's presentation of environmental activism via consumerism as if it were some radically new notion. Anyone older than a Millennial certainly remembers the impact had by The Body Shop and the environmental consumerist activism of the late 80s and early 90s. The really nice part about this Carrotmob effort, however, is that the impact was immediately evident and local. As they say, it's a win-win situation.

I'm not crazy about Barrack Obama or Joe Biden, but they beat the heck out of an idiot who graduated near the bottom of his class and whose claim to heroism starts and ends with getting shot down and surviving torture and a beauty-pageant contestant who seems to care more about producing children than raising them.

These PUMA (here's the wikipedia article on this PAC) fools need to remember what Sen. Clinton stands for, and it's not a woman in office by any means necessary! It matters WHICH woman, and most importantly, a woman who thinks rather than bending over for big business or following the Bible instead of the Constitution.

COEJL has its headquarters in New York and a national board of 23 trustees. COEJL is a program of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA).

COEJL seeks to expand the contemporary understanding of such Jewish values as tikkun olam (repairing the world) and tzedek (justice) to include the protection of both people and other species from environmental degradation. COEJL seeks to extend such traditions as social action and g'milut hasadim (performing deeds of loving kindness) to environmental action and advocacy. And shalom (peace or wholeness), which is at the very core of Jewish aspirations, is in its full sense harmony in all creation.

COEJL's website is at http://www.coejl.org/index.php.

  The Story, Brandi Carlile

As previously mentioned on this blog, Brandi Carlile and The Story  were one of my accidental finds when I attended several Saenger Theatre shows earlier this year.

Although I think that the use of popular songs on TV and commercials has been a bit overdone and almost a genre all it's own now, I do not have a problem with artists allowing their songs being used in commercials as long as the product isn't contradictory to their known beliefs...or for Viagra.

Knowing of Brandi's environmetal activism I was a bit confused about The Story being used in a GM commercial.  So, I did what I always do...I consulted the internets and on Brandi's MySpace blog today, I found this explanation:

Why "The Story" Is In A GM Commercial

Hey all,

I'm writing you from a plane bound for Portugal. While we are gone you may have already heard our song "The Story" in an Olympic advertisement for GM. Depending on how you feel about music and advertising in general, you may be wondering why a band like us would do something like this. Well I have a few good reasons, so allow me to shine a little light on the subject.

When GM first approached our band to use "The Story" in their 2008 Olympic ad visions of SUVs and full-size pick-up trucks driving through a rugged mountain range were dancing through my head. I promptly and politely declined. (Although I don't want to be a hypocrite, our band did tour in a GM gas-guzzling van for many years) But, when they came back to us and offered to involve us in an ad campaign promoting hybrids, bio fuel, bio hybrids, hydrogen fuel cell cars and yes, even the infamous electric car the Chevy Volt, I felt the need to think twice about having the opportunity to be a part of a huge American car company creating an ad campaign for environmentally responsible cars. We feel they allowed more than a fair amount of input from us and made an honest effort to create an environmentally conscious ad. We are proud of it.

I also believe in American jobs. Keeping people employed in the US and building fuel-efficient/alternative cars could help reduce and one day help eliminate our dependency on foreign oil. To really make a positive impact regarding the climate crisis we all need to work together to make the change, even GM.

Regardless of what my feelings are about the agenda behind the sudden wave of corporate environmental awareness, its still awareness just the same.

Thanks for hearing us out. The twins and I are proud to say that every last penny from the GM ad is being donated and split between several environmental organizations exploring alternative energy and effecting change on a grass roots level…sweet!

Names and links to these organizations are soon to follow just as soon as the paperwork is done! J

And yes dad, we are still loud mouth tree huggers…sorry.

xobc

Good 'nuff for me.  And, I think that many people could be introduced to Brandi's wonderful music through this very well done commercial for GM's hybrids.  I have to say that I prefer this use of the song than the contrived Grey's Anatomy.

- PRESS RELEASE -

The concerned citizens and environmentalists who had raised serious objections over the last two years against the construction of shopping malls in Vasant Kunj stand vindicated by the latest affidavit filed by the Ministry of Environment and Forests in the Supreme Court today.

The ministry has admitted that the topography of the sites of Vasant Kunj Malls is of Ridge. They have also established the environmental value of the area, particularly, as a ground water recharge zone.

The ministry have blamed DDA for not having exercised environmental caution by developing this area. In the opinion of the ministry, DDA is also in violation of the master plan of Delhi. It is averred in the affidavit that in hindsight, the location of a large commercial complex in this area is environmentally unsound, and giving clearance to such a project even with conditions attached is largely a compromise with the de-facto situation.

While recommending a solution, the ministry seems to have taken a turnaround and is now talking of damage control through Environment Management Programme and resource conservation measures rather than cancelling the construction projects and restoring the area to its pristine glory.

When the MoEF has accepted that the whole project is illegal, it is now suggesting to the Supreme Court that in order to save the investors’ money, the projects ‘may’ be given the go ahead by compromising on the protected status of the area.

QUOTES FROM KUMAR ONKARESHWAR

It seems that the government has clearly accepted that it is under the pressure of the moneyed. Hence, the constructions should be given a green signal by the Supreme Court. It seems the country’s next environmental policy is to give priority to the protection of investors rather than the environment, invalidating the existence of the MoEF.

Also, the noting by MoEF that DDA is guilty of not taking environmental precautions while auctioning the area, should have come with imposition of penalty on the DDA, in particular on the DDA officials involved in the hasty and nasty auction.

QUOTES FROM RAJENDRA SINGH, NOTED ENVIRONMENTALIST

Presently, the ground water reserves of the country are depleting at a very fast pace. The government of India is highly worried about this fact. Hon’ble prime minister has also expressed his apprehension and formed an advisory committee on building ground water sanctuaries. And possibly, a new bill is also coming in this session of parliament on this matter. All this shows how serious the scenario is. Hon’ble Supreme Court has also expressed its deep concerns on the matter. Ground water situation is turning very bad in the ridge area of Delhi. Keeping in mind the PM’s suggestions on ground water sanctuary, and to keep the water problem at bay, the ridge area as a whole should be declared a ground water sanctuary. This would also mean a good beginning being made from the PM’s doorstep.

QUOTES FROM “RAKESH Agarwal” – SECRETARY OF NYAYABHOOMI

Everybody agrees here, including all wings of the government, that the laws have been flagrantly violated. If the malls in Vasant Kunj still manage to get the sanction to recommence construction, this would tantamount to putting a premium on illegality.

QUOTES FROM “DIWAN SINGH” – RIDGE BACHAO ANDOLAN

The idea of a compromise by the government on this matter makes us wonder why the jhuggis are uprooted in the name of environment whereas the big fish are allowed to get away. It is also a message to the land mafia to go ahead with illegal construction as they will definitely get a compromise solution from the government.

QUOTES FROM “UDAY GOSAIN” – VASANT KUNJ RESIDENT

Our nature loving CM, who is spearheading the Plant More Trees campaign in the capital may like to pay heed to the MoEF’s acceptance of the importance of the region. Water and Forest are the two core issues close to her heart and, overlooking this illegality would reflect an anomaly.

The continuing of the malls would break a lot of people’s belief in the law, whereas the stoppage will result in an exponential increase of confidence in our judiciary.

......

The Big Wild refers to the part of Canada that is still in its natural state, where rivers flow free, big lakes and oceans lap against wild shores and animals roam. Its vision is to keep at least half of Canada's public land and water wild forever. The Big Wild is you and me, and every person across Canada who cares about conserving our environment.
Some amazing Big Wild Challenges include:
• a 3,100 km canoe trip through the Boreal forest of Manitoba and Ontario
• a back-packing trip in the spectacular Flathead Valley
• a trip to the Cirque of the Unclimbables in NWT’s incredible Nahanni National Park

And for 20/20 Vision BC volunteer, Pru Moore, it was a weeklong trail-building birthday party for 18 people in the Special Management Zone on the periphery of Walbran Provincial Park on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. A unique coastal ecosystem, the Walbran is one of the few remaining old-growth valleys left on Vancouver Island and a precious place on earth. Trail-building programmes are a strategy to create accessibility to these special ecological wilderness areas to increase public awareness, education, and create further arguments for protecting these most precious areas for generations to come. While building a bridge over a river to extend the trail through the deep woods, Pru and her group were calmed and refreshed by the sparkling clean water.
A fabulous and rewarding time was had by everyone!
[gallery]

so i went to see wall-e the other day. OH MY GOD.

it's the best movie ever. and i had just seen kung-fu panda the weekend before and declared that my new favourite movie. but wall-e takes things to a whole new level. i don't wanna say too much because i really want you all to see it and i don't wanna give away too much. but let's just say that it is about everything i hold to be true. man, i want to discuss it in a LOT more detail, but maybe later. i'll give it a week or two. then i'll write something with the disclaimer 'spoilers' so you know not to read it if you haven't seen the movie.

anyway, i so loved the movie that i was totally flabbergasted when my movie-buff boyfriend sent me a link to this article by the AV Club. apparently there is a massive backlash of hatred directed towards poor old wall-e. i couldn't believe it... how could any sane person HATE this film? then, as i read the article, i realised these were not the opinions of sane people. these are in fact the opinions of complete and utter morons. no wonder our planet is as f#$%ed up as it is, if people like these actually exist out there. it really saddens me that they do...

for those of you who have seen the movie, please read some of these extracts from the article and weep with me for the sad state of these peoples' minds.

apparently wall-e promotes leftist facism!!! (note that the guy from AV Club who wrote the article was pretty much taking the same viewpoint that i am) and i quote:

Shannen Coffin, however, had harsher things to say:

From the first moment of the film, my kids were bombarded with leftist propaganda about the evils of mankind. It's a shame, too, because the robot had promise. The story was just awful, however. Nice to see that Disney and Pixar can make mega-millions off of telling us just how greedy, lazy, and destructive we all are.

(Right, as opposed to making millions off of telling us how powerful, righteous, and handpicked for greatness by almighty God we are.)

Another wacko opinion says:

In his essay “WALL-E: Economic Ignorance And The War On Modernity,” Stolyarov cites the fact that fast-food restaurants are serving “health foods,” “landfills are remarkably effective at storing garbage,” and that traditional farming is, like, hard and stuff as flaws in the film’s logic:

WALL-E is an assault on modern civilization, borne of deep economic and historical ignorance. The film shamefully betrays the efforts of countless heroic individuals who have raised humanity out of the muck of barbarism. Its anti-technological, anti-capitalist message needs to be exposed and countered by all thinking individuals.

Yes, us "thinking individuals" need to remember that capitalism is the shining light - lifting millions out of poverty everyday and promoting the protection of the environment above all else. i'm no socialist myself but COME ON people... i hardly have any words, this kind of dumbness makes me so angry.

next on the hate list is that wall-e is prejudiced against fat people! oh geez. oh geez. are fat people stupid too? the movie is NOT about them. the fatness is symbolic. i don't even think i should have to be explaining this. i can't believe people have such chips on their shoulders. i didn't complain that the movie made HUMANS look bad, did i? and if i'm truly honest, maybe a certain category of 'fat' person should take some flak here... if you are a junk food guzzling person who has no conception of the damage your conumerist lifestyle has on the planet, then YES, YOU are causing the destruction of our planet. there - i said it. shoot me down.

but before you do... just read this:

WALL-E has also managed to piss off America’s “fat pride” community. "Food, fat, feminism" blog The F Word accuses Pixar of “using animation skills for evil” in its perpetration of discriminatory attitudes toward the overweight, saying:

WALL-E specifically singles out and targets obese people as the primary cause of mankind’s demise, further perpetuating the stereotype of the gluttonous, slothful fat person. Furthermore, the film suggests that, in their exaggerated laziness, obese people disregard not only personal health, but also that of the planets, and are held up as the cause for the destruction of the environmental landscape. This is, despite mountains of evidence that show, as a group, fat people do not eat more than thin people, nor are they less active, and that the so-called “obesity epidemic” has been greatly exaggerated by self-serving corporate interests.

 

golly lady, the movie wasn't ever supposed to be about FAT people. they got fat AFTER the world fell apart.

the final part of the backlash against wall-e is true. but it's such a hysterical example of how psychotic corporations are that it's not even funny anymore... but i don't blame the creative team at Pixar. i think that, to make a film so incredibly moving, they had to believe in those things themselves. it's not their fault the company they work for (Pixar) was bought by the Evil Disney Corporation. read this, to see how sad our world really is:

WALL-E is hypocritical... is the fact that the film, like every Disney product, inevitably comes packaged with the usual tide of tie-in crap, plastic trinkets that roll off the conveyor belt predestined for the landfill. Take Devin Faraci’s report on the film’s press junket for CHUD:

The room was stuffed with what seemed like a hundred or more tie-in products ranging fromWALL-E branded plastic Crocs (with tire tread patterns on the soles) to plastic WALL-E action figures to WALL-E branded clothing and bed sets and drapes. When asked which of the items were made with post-consumer recycled material or were made of biodegradable material, the PRbot giving the pitch seemed flustered. She said that they tried to use such materials whenever possible, and pointed out a post-consumer WALL-E branded Kleenex box. Every environmental group will beg you to avoid Kleenex, since they're wiping out Canada's Boreal Forest to give you a place to blow your nose, so the Kleenex connection is fucking pathetic in itself for a movie that trumpets taking care of the environment.

Or better yet:

Oddly enough, this also forms the basis for condemnation by The National Review’s Greg Pollowitz, who gets so apoplectic in his effort to paint the movie as leftist propaganda that he accidentally reinforces the movie’s message:

It was like a 90-minute lecture on the dangers of over-consumption, big corporations, and the destruction of the environment. All this from mega-company Disney, who wants us to buyWALL-E kitsch for our kids that are manufactured in China at environment-destroying factories and packed in plastic that will take hundreds of year to biodegrade.

GO AND SEE THIS FILM. IT'S BEAUTIFUL. SHOW IT TO YOUR KIDS. IF THEY DON'T WANT TO BECOME GREENPEACE ACTIVISTS AFTERWARDS, TAKE THEM TO A DOCTOR - THEY MAY BE BRAIN-DEAD.

This Sunday, the Green Edge Collaborative will be hosting a potluck dinner and discussion in Brooklyn with Leda Meredith, a former ballet dancer turned botanist who is a "locavore" - the term used to describe someone who strives to eat only locally grown foods - as well as a foraging expert, educator, and environmental activist. She'll be talking about her experience as a locavore living in Park Slope and sharing excerpts from her new memoir, Botany, Ballet and Dinner from Scratch, which will be published on July 15^th. I love learning about dancers who transition to careers completely outside of the dance world. Since I've been involved in environmental activism for several years - especially developing and supporting the local foods movement here in NYC - and work full-time for an environmental non-profit, I'm particularly curious about Leda's career and her shift from ballet to botany. Her memoir will certainly be an interesting summer read.

For more details about the Green Edge potluck and discussion with Leda, click here. And to learn more about Leda, check out her blog!

When I met one of the IT-specialists involved in this action in his modern office in Tallinn, he sat back in his chair, looked at me, and said something like: “So, we cleaned up Estonia. This was easy compared to the global change which has still to be brought about. We have a vacation now and are waiting for the next challenge. Do you have any suggestions?”

I had, indeed. You can imagine the inspiring talk we had after such an introduction. Since the book “Future without War” by Dieter Duhm has been published in Estonian language in February 2008 the thought came to me: What if we could create a “tipping point”, an evolving situation that leads to a new and irreversible development in the direction of global peace? Couldn't it be that the book “Future without War” will be discussed in Estonia so intensely that peace activists all over the world will start to do the same? This will nourish the idea and thus brings it closer to an irreversible manifestation of a future without war.

This or something even better may happen. The future is in our hands and in our decisions.

To end I want to use a quote by Dieter Duhm:

"The basis for the theory presented here is a world view that we can call "holographic cosmology". We all come from the universe, not only from Earth. We therefore all have within us the same latent cosmic knowledge, a store of memories and cosmic consciousness, which is at our disposal, and which we can use at any time, as long as we know how to use it." (out of the book: Future without War)

No environmental activism or political intervention behind today's stunt, though. It's all legal, secure (Robert wore a safety harness) -- and paid for. His 40-minute climb was filmed for a German program called "Unglaublich!" (which NYT translates into "Unbelievable!"). This time, his call-to-action was replaced by a T-shirt with the name of the show.

Why do so many independent acts get turned into promotional vehicles or media opportunities? As our visual landscape gets more and more jampacked with promotional messages, corporations are always on the lookout for the next out-of-the-blue spectacle. And they've got the budgets to monetize these unusual acts.

Does everything and everyone ultimately have a price?

Photo: Arne Dedert/European Press in NYT

We have needed a roadmap, a template for restoring a sense of direction to our environmental protection efforts, and now we have it. Tomorrow Today Canada reflects the best thinking of today's leaders in sustainability. A coalition project of Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, David Suzuki Foundation, Ecojustice, Environmental Defence, Equiterre, Greenpeace Canada, Nature Canada, the Pembina Institute, Pollution Probe, and World Wildlife Fund, the report lists over 30 immediate policy actions that can steer our society toward sustainability. >>read more>>>